Monday, August 22, 2011

The Tuatara is powered by a twin-turbocharged 7.0L V8 with 1,350 horsepower that is mated to a seven-speed transmission.

The Bugatti Veyron was the car that set a benchmark for those who dare to break the 250 miles per hour barrier. The Veyron was the first car to beat the McLaren F1′s 240 mph record.

This was the challenge for other super car makers of the world and while some never came even close to the Veyron’s 253 mph top speed, few like SSC from America did manage to beat it. The SSC Ultimate Aero thrashed the Bugatti Veyron by setting a top speed of 256 mph.

The folks at Bugatti responded with the Veyron Super Sports which topped out at 267 mph from the same 8.0 litre, quad-turbo, W16 engine that pumped out 1200 bhp. Shelby Supercars has now responded to this with an all new super car. It is called the SSC Tuatara.

The new supercar was unveiled at the Pebble Beach Concours this weekend. The engine that powers this beast puts out 1350 horsepower! The 7.0 liter, V8 is boosted with two turbochargers and is made by SSC this time and not sourced from GM, as has been the case in the past.

The car features a carbon fiber sub-frame chassis for added structural rigidity and lightness. Even the wheels are formed out of one-piece carbon fiber. The performance stats for the car not yet available since, the car is still in its concept stage. Shelby also plans to run the car around the Nurburgring and attempt to beat the production car record which is currently held by the Pagani Zonda R. Shelby Super Cars plans to build 16 units of the Tuatara annually with a plant capacity of 40 cars. The official price tag hasn’t been revealed yet though, a price upwards of a million dollars would be a wise guess.